'Fastest Road Car I've Ever Been In'

On his very first day at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton posed in front of the headquarters in Maranello next to the legendary F40. Not long after, the seven-time Formula 1 champion revealed his intention to create a modern version of the last car signed off by Enzo himself. But before the so-called “F44” comes out to pay tribute to Il Commendatore’s final Prancing Horse, LH is keeping busy outside of work hours by driving the latest hypercar.

Ferrari asked the 40-year-old British racing driver to take the F80 for a spin around the company’s Fiorano track in Italy. Fellow Scuderia Ferrari colleague Charles Leclerc joined in on the fun. As you can imagine, both had nice things to say about the company’s most powerful production vehicle ever. LH called it the “fastest road car I’ve ever been in,” a statement coming from someone who drove the Nürburgring record-breaking Mercedes-AMG One with its F1-derived engine.

The F1 veteran is even considering buying one: “Okay, I’ve got to order me some of these one day.” Although all 799 cars are spoken for, we’re sure Ferrari can work something out to accommodate Hamilton’s request should he decide to buy an F80. He calls it the “fastest road car Ferrari has done,” adding that he has “never driven anything like that on the road. This is another level.”

LH has owned some of the most desirable street-legal cars in the world, including a Pagani Zonda, which he once described as terrible to drive but praised as the best-sounding car thanks to its mighty AMG V-12. The new Ferrari F80 has half the cylinder count, and frankly, it didn’t sound impressive a while back around the Imola track.

As for teammate Charles Leclerc, this is not his first rodeo with the F80. The Monégasque has already starred in a video featuring the F80 at Ferrari’s track. It happened right after the hypercar’s official debut, so before Hamilton replaced Carlos Sainz Jr. The Spaniard now drives for Williams, but before leaving the Maranello squad, he too hyped up the electrified performance machine after driving a camouflaged pre-production prototype.